Book holder



July 2, 1940. H. c. STOLL BOOK HQLDER Filed Jan. 12, 1939 INVENTQR. 91123 61 A7011,

Patented July 2,1940

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claims.

The invention herein disclosed relates to book holders.

Special objects of the invention are to provide a device for holding one or a number of books in proper order, which will be particularly neat,

attractive and ornamental in character.

The foregoing and other desirable objects are attained in the present invention by novel fea-' tures of construction, combinations and relations of parts all as hereafter described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing and broadly covered. in the claim.

The drawing illustrates a preferred embodiment of the invention, the actual structure being capable of change and modification in various.

ways all within the true intent and broad scope of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a broken part sectional elevation of one form of the holder.

Fig. 2 is a partly broken end elevation of the same.

In the embodiment illustrated, the base I5, is in the form of a board or elongated panel of wood or other suitable material, which can be placed 5 on a desk, table or any other suitable support. A special feature of this base is that it has an undercut groove extending the length of the same and shown particularly in Fig. 2, as consisting of a surface slot IS, a widened trackway 30 I7, below that and a narrower bottom grooveway l8, below such trackway.

The bookends consist in this embodiment of the relatively thin sheet metal uprights l9, punched or otherwise shaped to form various ani- 5 mal or other ornamental designs and having dependent lugs 20, 2!, extended down through and upset or riveted in the flat base plates 22, de-' signed to slide in trackway H.

The outer lugs 20, are shown as extended some- 40 what to provide hooks or abutments '23, over which are looped the ends of a coiled expansion spring 24.

The upstanding portions of the bookends are shown as having upper and lower book engaging. portions 25, 26, separated by an intervening fin- 5 ger receiving space 21, assuring firm holding of the books and providing a ready finger grip by which the ends may be readily separated, against the holding force of the spring connecting the ends. 10

The two opposed spring connected bookends can be handled as a unit in sliding them into or removing them from the undercut groove in the supporting base. An intermediate stop 36 may be interposed in the undercut groove or trackway l5 l7 between the sliding book-end bases 22.

The structure while relatively simple. andinexpensive is entirely practical and desirable and can be' made up in many ornamental and attractive forms, to suit or to be actually physically 20 combined with special furniture, such as end tables, desks, cabinets and the like.

What is claimed is:

A book holder, comprising a supporting base 7 having a narrow surface slot in the face of the same, a wider laterally extended trackway beneath said slot and a narrow bottom groove below said trackway, book ends having narrow thin flat bases slidingly supported on and confined in said trackway below the surface of said supporting base and upstanding portions projecting from said bases up through said narrow surface slot into opposing book holding relation and a coiled spring housed within said bottom groove below said book end-bases and connected at opposite ends with said sliding bases to thereby yieldingly draw said book ends together, thus slidingly supported wholly beneath the surface of said supporting base.

HENRY C. STO-LL. 40 

